Fortnite News

Fortnite players thought they were finally free of the game's overpowered Infinity Blade when it was removed three days ago - but they were wrong. Despite being encased in an ice block, the sword's mystical powers live on.

Arguably the most famous dance ever created in the history of the world - except from the moonwalk maybe - is Carlton's finger-snapping, forearm-whirling, hip-swinging dance from TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. You all know it, just like you all know the words to Will Smith's rap-troduction.

It's been about 24 hours since Epic introduced the latest change to the ever-evolving Fortnite - and in that short amount of time, it has managed to pretty much unite the game's community, although perhaps not in the way you'd think.

UPDATE 11/12/18: Today's patch notes confirm the Infinity Blade will indeed be a one-off weapon available every match from the newly-opened up Polar Peak, the Ice King's lair. Just one player will be able to wield the sword at any time, just as Fortnite's Thanos event featured the Infinity Gauntlet earlier in the year.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Epic replaced Fortnite's Risky Reels with The Block, an area that houses a creation made by a player in the new Creative mode. As you'd expect, players are getting stuck in and building their owns play spaces - and an early favourite is Call of Duty maps.

UPDATE 3PM: Fortnite's Creative mode has now been officially confirmed by Epic, with the news that Season 7 Battle Pass owners will get a week's early access starting alongside the new season tomorrow, 6th December. Everyone else will gain access to Creative mode in a week's time, on 13th December.

Between the shambling monsters, meandering cubes, and inter-dimensional butterflies from beyond time and space, Fortnite's sixth season has certainly been memorable. All good things must come to an end however, and Epic has now confirmed that Season 6 only has only three days left to go. On a happier note, it's also shared the very first tease for Season 7.

Fortnite fans dreaming of a white Christmas have found the first real in-game evidence that their snow-dappled wishes are about to come true, and that temperatures are beginning to fall across Battle Royale island.

Is it an ambitious crossover between the world's two most popular battle royale games? Not quite. What you're actually looking at is the latest Fortnite skin, the Tender Defender, which has been created at the request of an eight year old (and most of the Fortnite subreddit). Now, after several months of requests from Fortnite players, the skin is finally available in the item shop.

Fortnite has been threatening to go all cowboy since the start of its current season, with Battle Pass skin Calamity changing from simple farmhand to badass fluorescent cowgirl over the past couple of months.

Fortnite fans dreaming of a white Christmas this year think Epic might be readying to grant their wish - if a mysterious new storm cloud on the distant horizon of Battle Royale mode's map is anything to go by.

After months of brewing tensions between Durr Burger and Pizza Pit in the world of Fortnite, it seems the two restaurants have finally taken things outside. And in some style, as players are able to join in the battle with a new limited time mode.

Fortnite's emotes seem to have taken on a life of their own. They've popped up everywhere from the 2018 FIFA World Cup final to Strictly Come Dancing, and now they've danced their way into the Guinness Book of World Records. Yes, really.

Fortnite's cartoony world sometimes feels out of step with the guns you actually shoot within it - there's something a little off about the mix of pistols, shotguns and scoped assault rifles alongside the more playful llamas, purple zombies and Kevin the Cube.

Fortnite's map is continually evolving - we've had rockets, meteors, and most recently a giant purple cube (nicknamed Kevin) which spent several weeks rolling over the grassy hills of Lazy Links. Having transformed Loot Lake into a millennial version of the Wizard of Oz, the cube seems to have reached the next phase of its transformation stage, as Fortnite's floating island is starting to look a little - well - different.

Fortnite's always been eager to crack down on cheating. Even back in 2017, Epic Games carried out ban waves where it removed "thousands" of misbehaving players, and it is still pursuing an ongoing lawsuit against two other players for cheating. Now, the company is once again stepping up efforts to combat cheats, as two YouTubers are being sued by Epic for copyright infringement and breach of contract.

Epic has announced that it's introducing Tournaments to Fortnite's Battle Royale mode as part of the game's imminent 6.10 update. Tournaments will be open to everyone, and are described as a chance for players to "compete directly alongside the pros for prizes and glory".

Each tournament session will last several hours, with players competing to earn the most points possible - either by eliminating others during a match or through high placements. If players can reach a tournament's target score, they'll receive a special pin. "In the future," says Epic, "earning a pin may advance you to the next round of a tournament or qualify you to win prizes."

Epic has so far announced six tournaments for the days and weeks following update 6.10's arrival. These will run from October 16th to November 1st, with tournaments lasting between two and five days, and each focussed on different play modes.

Most Fortnite players will currently be preoccupied with Season 6's spooky Halloween theme, but retailers are already looking ahead to the next big holiday. Now, you won't be able to struggle with finding a present for young Timmy this Christmas, as one website is offering Fortnite-themed Christmas jumpers.

Fancy a steaming side order of cringe with your Sunday dinner? Of course you do. So here are the stars of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing trying out some of Fortnite's most iconic moves, including Groove Jam, Hype, Fresh, and Floss.

First it was shopping trolleys, then it was golf buggies (or ATKs, if we're going to be proper about things), and now Fortnite is getting a third four-wheeled transportation device: the quad-bike-like QuadCrasher.

It's that time again. The Fortnite servers are offline, and another update is on the way. Let the countdown begin until the new weapons are vaulted in the next patch.

Fortnite update v6.02 brings a few notable changes to the game, the most obvious being the addition of the Quad Rocket Launcher - a heavyweight RPG capable of firing four rockets in quick succession. With a high base damage of 80-84 combined with the ability to shoot four rockets before reloading, some players are voicing concerns this weapon could tilt the game back towards a "spray" or "explosives" meta.

Epic has released a video showing the Quadlauncher in action, and I have to say, it looks pretty intense. We'll have to see how this one plays out.

Fortnite wouldn't be Fortnite unless it was doing something at least a little unpredictable at any given moment. And while the roving adventures of Kevin the Cube might seem to suggest that Epic had reached peak peculiar this week, word of Fortnite's newest limited-time mode says otherwise.

UPDATE 3/10/18 11:30AM: Fortnite's latest V.6.1 patch confirms a name change for the previously leaked Freeze Trap, calling them Chiller Traps instead. There are also some new options to toy around with in the Playground mode.

On Tuesday, Sony finally announced - and enabled - console cross-play for PlayStation 4 with the launch of a beta test for Fortnite, caving in to fan pressure and negative press that had ramped up over the course of a year.

It's been quite a raunchy week in the world of video games. It started with the Bowsette fan art trend - which saw Princess Bowser boobs plastered across the internet - and it's ending with breast physics in Fortnite. You just couldn't make this stuff up.

Fortnite's just-announced cross-play functionality is now live, albeit with one caveat - you cannot currently unlink a PlayStation account from your Epic account. This is an issue if you had previously set up a temporary Epic account to play Fortnite, which you might have done if your main Epic account was blocked on PS4 for playing on other platforms.

After plenty of speculation about when Fortnite's next season would arrive - and some even suggesting it could be severely delayed - Epic has announced season six is arriving next week.

Players will finally be able to discover the next chapter in the Fortnite story on September 27th. Until then, you may want to make the most of the last days of season five: there's a whopping 400 per cent match XP boost in action this weekend to help you reach those higher levels. Unfortunately no amount of XP boost can save me from my terrible building skills. RIP my dreams of reaching level 100.

It's still something of a mystery as to what this season's theme will be, but given the cube recently transformed Loot Lake into a giant trampoline, it could be related to this in-game event. Other fan theories have hypothesised a dark mirror world with lava, while the Fortnite account also teased a "frozen forewarning" skin earlier today. Fire and ice, anyone?

For weeks there've been whispers that Epic Games had something big planned Fortnite's Loot Lake, with many speculating that the game's mysterious roving rift-cube would eventually end its meandering journey at the Battle Royale map's largest body of water.

Last week, Nintendo unveiled a beautiful limited edition Pokémon Switch bundle. It features coloured Joy-Cons to match the Eevee and Pikachu theme, along with an elaborately decorated dock - a real treat for the eyes, although not for your wallet.

Fortnite fans, however, are not so lucky. The newly-announced Fortnite hardware bundle, which arrives in stores on the 5th of October, looks a little disappointing. It does include some exclusive in-game items, but the Switch itself comes in bog-standard colours, and there's no decoration on the dock. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity - particularly as there's no shortage of art inspiration for a Fortnite-themed console.

So what's actually included? To accompany the console there's 1000 V-Bucks for players to spend in-game, along with the Double Helix item bundle, which contains "a unique Character Outfit, Back Bling, Glider and Pickaxe". From the picture on the box, they don't look particularly Nintendo-themed (apart from the red and white colour scheme).

If there's one thing that I struggle with in Fortnite, it's the building - which is un-fort-unate given this is a key aspect of the gameplay. But Epic is making things a little easier for players with its latest item. A souped-up version of the Port-A-Fort, I present to you: the Port-A-Fortress.

The Fortnite community is obsessed with trying to predict the next in-game event. Even a cursory glance at YouTube will show you hundreds of conspiracy-theory videos, written in all-caps, declaring things such as "TILTED TOWERS will be DESTROYED by a COMET". Few have been correct.

Fortnite's Summer Skirmish is all about big bucks and big viewer numbers. With a total of $1.5m on the line and an audience of thousands, this week's grand finals at PAX West prompted a lot of online chatter - although not for reasons you'd expect.

Don't expect to see esports in the Olympic Games any time soon. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach believes the video games being played still promote violence and killing too much to be included.

Epic Games has now, following its sneaky tease last Friday, revealed full details of Fortnite's upcoming heist-themed High Stakes limited-time event, which comes to Battle Royale mode later this week.

High Stakes' centre-piece is the new The Getaway limited-time mode, which is designed for squads and - as was revealed during Fortnite's PAX West livestream over the weekend - sets teams loose across the Battle Royale map in search of jewels.

These jewels are found in safes which fall from the sky attached to Supply Drop balloons. Once a jewel has been retrieved, a team must then safely transport it to a getaway van elsewhere on the map. The first four teams to successfully get a jewel into a vehicle - all while avoiding the barrage of gunfire from competing squads, of course - win the game.

Because Fortnite wouldn't be Fortnite if it didn't find a way to to be enticingly enigmatic at least once every couple of days, Epic has teased a mysterious new High Stakes event, due to begin some time next week.

In the aftermath of Epic's decision to have battle royale phenomenon Fortnite avoid the Google Play store, it seems tensions remain high between the two companies. Over the past few days, a new tussle has emerged - this time over a security flaw found in the Android version of the game.

In the best example I've seen of a carrot on a stick since those chocolate bars I got for giving blood, Fortnite fans have noticed a snazzy premium dance you can get for free - if you enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Epic account.

The latest Fortnite update has dropped, and this time, it's all about skilful long-distance shooting. Not good news for me, then.

In the notes for update v5.21, Epic finally announced it's added the heavy sniper rifle, which was originally discovered by dataminers on StormshieldOne several weeks ago. The weapon deals a high amount of damage to players - between 150 to 157 points worth, in fact, but the main impact it should make is on buildings, where bullets can deal a huge 1100 points of damage. The only downside is increased reload time, but as highlighted by commenters on Reddit, the heavy sniper rifle only takes one second longer to reload than the bolt-action.

When the heavy sniper was initially leaked, some players expressed concern it was an "anti-building" addition. It will be interesting to see how the update changes the game's current meta, particularly as scoped assault rifles are also being removed, while the minigun is receiving a nerf.

It's time for a big new Fortnite update, which means we'll soon be back on the Fortnite merry-go-round of Epic introducing and nerfing new weapons following community complaints.

This week, it's all about the shotguns again, as Epic has announced in its v5.20 patch notes a new double-barrel shotgun has arrived. This apparently "packs a punch with each of its two shots," and like most shotguns, will be "devastating at close range" but less effective at distance. The gun can only be found as epic and legendary loot, meaning it should be fairly rare in the game. If you want to see the full specs, make sure to check out Eurogamer's Fortnite weapons guide.

Meanwhile, a new LTM (Limited Time Mode) has also been added, which goes by the name of "Steady Storm". Beyond sounding like something Theresa May would say, the mode will feature a gradually-moving storm that closes in over 15 minutes. Players will need to keep an eye on the map, as the storm "waits for no player and there are no safe zones". Relaxing stuff.

You'd think the Fortnite / football love-in reached its natural limit when French forward Antoine Griezmann scored a penalty and celebrated by doing the infamous Fortnite Take the L dance in the World Cup final. Yet here we are with another example of the world of football clashing with the world of Fortnite.

Yesterday, the official Twitter account of French club Nantes published a clip that contains Fortnite gameplay and the unveiling of new signing Lucas Evangelista, who joins from Italian club Udinese on a five-year deal.

The clip begins as a game of Fortnite does, with a pre-match lobby. In the lobby is a player called Coach Miguel (the Nantes coach is Miguel Cardoso), another called Diego Carlos (Nantes have a Brazilian defender called Diego Carlos) and a player called Val Rongier (Nantes have a French midfielder called

Fortnite is one of those rare games which somehow seems to leak beyond the digital into real life. Only the other day, when I was out walking the dog, I came across teens teaching their parents Fortnite dances in the middle of a field. Now, it seems a lot more people will be flossing in the countryside, as one company has created an outdoor laser tag version of the game.

Last week, a clip of a Fortnite player's struggle to rescue another from the edge of the map emerged on Reddit. The victim, who goes by the name 'Chappadoodle', had become stuck on a ledge after falling from the edge of the map. Rescuer 'Muselk' went to extreme lengths to retrieve Chappadoodle, even driving a golf cart down to help the victim boost up when the build limit had been reached. Ultimately, this proved to be the pair's undoing, as Chappadoodle bravely threw themselves in the way of the cart to prevent Muselk from tumbling off the map. It was termed "the greatest rescue mission in Fortnite", but honestly, A Comedy of Errors would also have been suitable.

Fortnite has hit the mainstream headlines, is played by some of the biggest celebrities around and is pretty much the most popular game in the world. Now, there's one more thing to strike from the Fortnite bucket list: the World Cup final.

Last weekend, Fortnite's long-teased rocket launch went slightly awry, ripping a giant crack in space and time across the sky above the map. Since then, smaller rifts have started to appear throughout the world, slowly expanding and gobbling up key landmarks as they grow. And now one of those landmarks has been discovered spat out in a desert in the real world.

The ingredients were all there. Tracks, bounce pads... carts. Rainbow Road already sounds like a Fortnite location. All that remained was for the Playground Limited Time Mode to go live, and players have now joined the dots to produce Mario Kart-style tracks within Fortnite.

Fortnite has a habit of releasing a cool new thing in the game and then pulling it just hours after launch - and it's done it again.

Yesterday, Epic released patch 4.5 for the all-conquering battle royale game and with it Playground mode.

Playground LTM (limited time mode) lets you train, explore and battle in a care-free environment. You can drop onto the island with up to three friends and do things like practice building or just mess about, free from the stress of the normal last player standing gameplay.

It seems only yesterday we were watching the skies for Fornite's big meteor and then getting beaten up by Thanos. But Fortnite season four is now drawing to a close, and season five is right around the corner.

Developer Epic has now dated Fortnite season five's arrival: for 12th July at 8am UK time. That's just over a fortnight away!

There's no word yet on what season five will bring next following the current batch of space rocks and superheroes.

The Fortnite endgame has become a tad one-note. Anyone who's into the world's most popular game will know that late game strategy - most of the time - boils down to a building face-off with shotguns and rocket launchers.

Epic has announced its 2019 Fortnite World Cup competition, which is open to all players and includes a not insignificant $100 million USD prize pool.

Fortnite's 2018-2019 competitive season, announced last month, will incorporate community events, online events, and major competitions all over the world. Anyone that wishes to participate is free to do so - but, to earn a spot in the World Cup, players will need to enter official qualifiers, which begin this autumn. The competitive season culminates with the Fortnite World Cup event itself in late 2019.

World Cup play will focus on solos and duos (although there'll apparently be "plenty of opportunities to squad up in competition too"), and Epic stresses that entry is based on merit - it won't be selling teams or franchises, and won't allow third party leagues to do so either.

Gaming headset sales have skyrocketed - and it's down to the battle royale craze.

The phenomenal popularity of Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has seen massive 185 per cent increase in revenue at Turtle Beach, which accounts for nearly 46 per cent of the gaming headset market share.

Turtle Beach boss Juergen Stark told Variety battle royale has fuelled a surge in popularity for his company's headsets - a surge so big it will spend more than $4m this quarter on air-freighting new stock into the US.

If you're a Twitch Prime member with a fondness for Fortnite, you may rejoice once more: another batch of exclusive Fortnite goodies will be made available as part of Twitch Prime subscriptions on Wednesday, May 9th.

The Fortnite Twitch Prime Pack #2, as the offering has been imaginatively titled, contains four exclusive items for Battle Royale mode: there's the Trailblazer Outfit, notable for its many khaki hues, as well as the True North Back Bling, and Tenderizer Pickaxe.

Most thrillingly for fans of frantic arm-frollicking, the new pack also includes the Freestylin' dance emote. This is one of several unreleased emotes that players managed to unearth recently by rummaging through the game's innards. Personally, I'm more excited by Chicken - which will hopefully turn out to be one of these.

Brace yourselves people, it's finally happening! After weeks of teasing and speculation, massive chunks of rock are now thundering down from the skies over Fortnite's Battle Royale map and smashing to the earth.

Update 24/04/2018, 11pm: As if UFOs popping up all over the place yesterday wasn't enough to convince everyone that an earth-rending conclusion to Fortnite's long-teased meteor disaster is imminent, emergency broadcast systems have now been activated in-game.

Epic Games has released its latest Fortnite update, heralding another round of balance changes, bug fixes, and tweaks, alongside new additions like the Light Machine Gun. It also brings a selection of gifts for players, by way of an apology for last week's extended server downtime.

Scanning down the list of new additions, the Light Machine Gun is undoubtedly the highlight of today's Version 3.5 content update, although perhaps less exciting than some of the game's other recent treats - such as the sadly temporarily shelved guided missiles. The Light Machine Gun is a Battle Royale mode exclusive and includes a fast rate of fire and 100 round magazine designed, says Epic, to keep squads pinned down from a distance.

If that's not quite enough to get your pulse a-quickening, 3.5 also paves the way for the new limited-time Battle Royale mode 50v50 V2. This was originally scheduled to unfold last week but was delayed as a result of the game's widely reported account server issues and extended downtime; however, the new mode begins in earnest today.

You might have noticed Fortnite has had a rough 24 hours or so. Whether you're big into the hottest game on earth yourself, or your kids rushed home from school only to find their favourite video game didn't work, millions were left stranded yesterday, cast adrift and perplexed at the prospect of a Fortnite-less evening.

Fortnite's regularly scheduled update is here, and it's a big 'un, introducing the new Port-a-Fort grenade, a fully fledged Replay system, the new Thunder Route 99 area for Save the World, new cosmetics, and a wealth of tweaks and bug fixes. Less positively, it also breaks Guided Missiles.

The obvious highlights, though, are the new, recently teased Port-a-Fort grenade, and the Replay System. Port-a-Fort functions pretty much as everyone had deduced, acting as a throwable instant fort. Epic's latest patch notes add a few additional details, however, confirming that, when detonated, the Port-a-Fort will unfurl into a three-story metal fort, with a 1x1 base and tires inside for easy ascent. Additionally, it's of Epic rarity, drops in a stack of one and can be placed in a stack of up to five in an inventory.

Replay, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like, offering a means of creating cinematic replays on PC and consoles - complete with different camera types, angles, and speeds, and even adjustable focus, aperture, and exposure - to commemorative your best Battle Royale moments.

Footballers play Fortnite. That's not surprising - pretty much everyone plays Fortnite right now. But it's kind of crazy to see Fortnite bleed into the real world of football - in the form of goal celebrations.

Fortnite Battle Royale fans have been scrambling to make sense of mysterious new in-game phenomenon, all seemingly related to the strange meteor that's been hanging in the sky above the map for at least a week now.

Epic has launched Fortnite's new 3.4 content update, introducing Vending Machines, an Easter Egg Launcher, and a new limited-time event in the form of High Explosives v2.

According to Epic, today's 3.4 update marks a change in the way that it will release new Fortnite content moving forward. From now on, the developer will alternate between content-focussed updates and larger patches that include new content alongside more complex fixes and changes - with one or the other arriving every week.

Update 3.4's new additions include a Vending Machine for Battle Royale mode - "Materials go in, loot comes out", as Epic puts it. Vending Machines can be found all across the map, and each offers three random item and rarity combinations for purchase.

As ever, it's all go in Fortnite; developer Epic has revealed that guided missiles and an Easter-themed questline are coming to Fortnite, and that an exclusive new pickaxe will be available to Twitch Prime subscribers from tomorrow.

Brilliant! There's a pub in Huddersfield which offers a £30 bar tab to anyone who can get a Victory Royale in Fortnite, there and then. Reckon you could do it on a projected screen with everybody watching?

Update, 8/3/18: Fortnite's new 3.2 update is here, and Epic has offered a full breakdown of what you'll find once you fire it up on your video games machine of choice.

Of no surprise at all, given that it was announced yesterday, Fortnite Battle Royale's new limited-time Teams of 20 event is the headline addition. As its name suggests, it brings a temporary five-teams-of-20 ruleset into play.

However, that's not the end of it; update 3.2's other assorted odds and ends include this rather flash new biker-themed "Burnout" skin for Battle Royale mode:

UPDATE, 1/3/18: Fortnite's 3.1.0 update is now here, bringing with it the usual bug fixes and improvements. As expected, however, it also introduces a few new goodies, including Battle Royale mode's previously teased Hunting Rifle and Lucky Landing point of interest.

The Hunting Rifle, which stands in for the temporarily delayed jetpacks that were teased earlier in the week, is effective at medium to long range - and only holds one round in its chamber. For the curious, it looks a little something like this:

Meanwhile, the new Lucky Landing point of interest can be found on the on Southern edge of Battle Royale mode's island map, and seems like a perfectly pleasant place to spend the afternoon. Aside from all the murder-bullets whizzing through the air, obviously.

Epic appears to be teasing the imminent arrival of jetpacks in Fortnite Battle Royale, judging by the game's latest welcome screen.

On firing up the game last night, players were treated to an update screen which, as well as showing the already announced Fortnite Season 3 Battle Pass and Royale Dragon Glider, gave a sneaky glimpse of an entirely new item: the Jetpack. "Take the fight to all new heights", read the blurb, beneath a message indicating that jetpacks would be "coming soon".

That flavour text certainly implies that jetpacks won't merely be cosmetic in nature when they arrive, but it's unclear whether the item might offer full-on flight, or - as some users are speculating on the Fortnite subreddit - more of a portable jump-pad-style height burst. Obviously though, jetpacks will remain a mystery until Epic decides to reveal more.

Fortnite's massive Season 3 update is here, and developer Epic Games has offered a full rundown of everything it brings - including a look at the new Hoverboard and Hand Cannon, plus some of the Battle-Pass-exclusive cosmetics in video form.

Season 3's biggest Battle Royale additions - most of which have been teased previously - include building improvements designed to make construction smoother, faster, and more intuitive, plus an increase to 60 FPS on PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, and Xbox One X.

Save the World mode, meanwhile, gets a Lunar New Year questline with new weapons and heroes (including Valentines Ninja Snuggle Specialist Sarah), as well as new music. The latter takes the form of an all-new, hour-long orchestral score, created by film composer Marco Beltrami (Logan, The Hurt Locker) and Pinar Toprak (the Krypton TV series) - and there are remixed versions to be heard in Battle Royale's lobby, launch, and log-in menus.

Epic has revealed more on Fortnite's upcoming third season, including details of its improved building features and the Season 3 Battle Pass.

Building is, of course, one of the core features of Fortnite, setting it apart from other similarly styled games. Epic's upcoming building improvements seem intended to pick up the pace of construction in order to keep the flow of combat moving.

Season 3 will introduce a new feature called Turbo Building, which must be toggled on in the options menu. This makes it possible to hold down primary fire to quickly and continuously place a selected piece. It essentially lets players "paint" that piece into the world, which is handy for constructing simple structures - such as the staircase shown in the video below.

Epic has released its latest Fortnite update, bringing with it a number of additions and improvements, including performance gains on consoles, devastating Impulse Grenades, secret treasure shrines, and more.

Fortnite's most timely addition in the 2.5.0 update comes in the form of new heroes and weapons, themed around the Lunar New Year - more specifically, the Chinese New Year - which has just begun. These goodies are available exclusively in Save the World mode.

Not to be outdone, Battle Royale mode gets its own exclusive new feature: thematic Shrines hidden across the map, each promising untold treasures to lucky adventurers. Battle Royale also gets the new Impulse Grenade which, on detonation, sends out a massive shockwave capable of launching unfortunate bystanders straight into the air.

Epic Games has shared more details of its upcoming Valentine's event for Fortnite and Battle Royale, due to commence on February 14th.

First up, Fortnite's Battle Royale mode will receive a selection of striking, vaguely Valentine's Day themed skins. Two have been revealed at present: a be-winged, toga-wearing statue-man, and a kind of human-sized female punk bear.

Whether there will be others skins in addition to those, Epic does not say. What it does reveal, however, is that a new weapon will come to Battle Royale as part of the update: the Crossbow. This, says Epic, will allow you to "hunt your prey the old-fashioned way".

Fornite's latest update is a whopper, fixing a lot of pesky bugs and adding some much-needed new content to both Battle Royale and Save the World.

The new update adds smoke grenades to Battle Royale. Smoke grenades can be found in all container types, but can also be found randomly as floor loot, providing a handy magician's escape or distraction for your enemy.

Two new leaderboards have also been introduced to Battle Royale: a global leaderboard, which is measured by wins and spotlights the top 50 players for the selected match type, and a scoreboard, measured by the amount of total experience gained.

Last month Epic Games filed civil complaints against two alleged Fortnite cheaters. The pair were accused of being associated with the cheat provider Addicted Cheats, allegedly acting as support personnel for the site and using aimbot software "with the deliberate intention of ruining the game for other players and players who watch streamers".

Fortnite's new 1.9 update is now live, bringing with it a sizeable number of tweaks and improvements. Its most notable addition, however, comes to Battle Royale mode in the form of new placeable launch pads, enabling you to spring into the air, re-deploy your glider and drift about whenever, wherever you please.

It's an item that has the potential to dramatically alter the rhythm of the game, adding sudden, long-distance terrain traversal to Fortnite Battle Royale's rapidly burgeoning bag of faintly ridiculous tricks. That leaves ample scope for quick getaways or sneaky infiltration into enemy territory - as long as you don't forget that you're awfully exposed while you drift through the air in the middle of a match, like a murderous Mary Poppins.

There are caveats to your new portable flight-makers however; although launch pads can be used an unlimited number of times, they can't be picked back up once deployed, and they can be destroyed like any other trap.

The developer of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has hit out at Epic's Fortnite for "replicating" its game.

In an eyebrow-raising press release, Bluehole exec Chang Han Kim slammed Fortnite's new Battle Royale mode for its similarities to PUBG. Kim said his studio was "concerned" and - ominously - stated it would "contemplate further action".

It's a surprising position to take; despite Battlegrounds' huge popularity, it is far from the first game to offer Battle Royale-inspired gameplay. It's not even the first competitor from a major publisher - GTA Online recently launched its own take, for example.

Remember when Epic Games flew the Xbox 360 flag with Gears of War? Those were the days. Now we get Paragon (open beta), a not-bad MOBA; Fortnite (alpha), a base-building survival game in development for six years now; and a new, somewhat openly developed Unreal Tournament (pre-alpha).

Oh, and one other game, just announced: Battle Breakers. A turn-based tactical role-playing game for mobiles and PC, with cross-platform play.

Battle Breakers looks like typical mobile fare, with your team's heroes stood on hex grids on your side, facing off against enemies standing on hex grids on their side. There's an anime style and tone to the whole thing, with loud noises and flashy abilities. Do I sound old yet?

It's been a funny few years for Epic Games. A generation ago it was firing on all cylinders: Gears of War struck like a thunderbolt in 2006, followed by everyone and their dog licensing Unreal Engine 3. Then there was the incredible success of Infinity Blade on mobile devices. I, and probably you, sat eager for what big new game would come next.

Epic's upcoming construct-and-defend sandbox game Fortnite has been confirmed for Mac.

Epic's Bill Bramer made the reveal onstage at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference today, where he confirmed that the Mac version's beta will go live this autumn. An Epic rep since confirmed to Eurogamer that this is a closed beta.

To commemorate the new platform, Epic revealed a new gameplay trailer - below - showing off how its cartoony carpentry game is shaping up.

Doors open in the video games industry for someone like Cliff Bleszinski. He's famous in these parts. He left Epic Games in October and got away from it all, put some trunks on, went on holiday and spent time with his wife. Now he's had his break, what does he plan to do?